Thursday, November 08, 2012

25 comments:

Howard won't mind stepping aside for the kids today; this courtesy of talkingpointsmemo.com:

•The Kids Are AlrightDemocrats felt good about their big margins with Latinos and African Americans heading into the election (and even better heading out of it as their voting coalition steamrolled Republicans in states around the country). But the young voters who showed up for Obama in 2008 were another story. Polls showed them significantly less enthused, and the Romney campaign thought the rough economy would be enough for them to bring some over to their side. It wasn’t a coincidence that the most memorable line of Paul Ryan’s convention speech was about “fading Obama posters” on their walls.

But in a happy surprise for Democrats, they showed up in droves for Obama again in 2012. Voters under 30 made up 19% of the electorate per exit polling, an increase of their share from 2008. And Obama still blew out Romney on the margins, winning their vote 60-36. As the Republican Party gets older, the prospect of a rapidly growing generation of reliable Democrats that actually shows up on Election Day is about the worst news possible.

Cat--re legalization of medical marijuana in California, the initiative was poorly written and the voters' intent has been subverted. Marijuana trafficing for profit under guise of compassionate use is a real problem out here. I guess the principle of the states being laboratories of democracy applies; some are going to get it right, others not so right, and yet others wrong before finally the federal government gets with the program. I can't think of a specific example, but I recall hearing that there were previous cases of temporary conflict between states and the feds over particular issues, and that the feds eventually gave way.

I found myself wondering today if us old pinkos might actually have managed to hold out until reinforcements arrived. It has been SO long, and the disappointments have been so many, that it is hard to believe. But damned if it doesn't look like this is the real thing. The battle's not over, though.

Hmm. Thinking back over the presidents I can remember (I was only 8 when FDR died), I think LBJ was probably the most liberal. Truman might be a contender. And Obama reminds me in several ways of LBJ, especially given the obvious parallel between Medicare and Obamacare.

Alan, that's not the way Republicans see it. Some of them are foaming at the mouth, saying Obama's election makes them ashamed to be Americans and warning that there will be no USA left by the end of his second term.

They're crazy. There's no other word for it. Obama isn't perfect, but a shame to America? Come on! Now, Dubya was a major shame to America, and it will take a long time to repair the damage he did to our honor, good name and international reputation, to say nothing of our economy. But Obama? What on earth has he done to cause embarrassment or shame? As Renee said, he is a decent human being, I may add unlike Dubya who is evil! We may want Obama to do this or that differently, but there is no reason to be ashamed of him.

I especially noted the part about the Republicans being blown away by the Democratic ground game. A couple of decades ago people were talking about the Republican advantage in grassroots organization. How times have changed! (Do the initials HD come to anyone's mind?)

As a Democrat, I was also cheered by the conservative attacks on the "Republican establishment." IMHO, that is exactly what has turned Illinois from purple to blue over the past dozen years.

Bill, do you mean the RW takeover of the party? Yes, that is definitely destructive. I clearly remember a time when, though you would disagree with a Republican, you could nonetheless respect him as an intelligent gentleman of conviction. No more, alas. If Sen. Lugar had been allowed to run again, for instance, he might very well have held his seat despite his age. The general electorate has been returning him to the Senate for how long now? But by hijacking the primary, the RW guaranteed that they would lose that seat, because the general electorate was not prepared to support the Tea Party extremist. Between them, the Dem. and the Inde. got fifty-six percent of the vote, the Rep. finishing with forty-four percent. That's an alarmingly high percentage, but still sufficiently low to elect the candidate.

What worries me is the stupidity, the lack of knowledge of American History, Government and fundamental principles and the gullibility of these TP extremists. They don't seem to understand the foundation on which our country is built - Liberty and Justice for all? Brotherhood from sea to shining sea? No way! Give me mine and by the way make sure the rich folks don't have to pay their own way but instead make sure the poorest and most vulnerable get ground ever further into the dust. There's nothing American about that; there's nothing Christian - which is relevant since so many of them trumpet their Christian values. It isn't even common, human decency. That's what's so dangerous about these lunitic fringe elements and their takeover of the Republican Party, not their ridiculous, sixth-grade-level policies but the degradation and corruption of the party's and the country's ideals.

They wouldn't be so dangerous if the created their own party. Then they might well remain a mostly harmlessfringe movement. But being incorporated into an existing party and slowly morphing that party into their own imageshows that they have ambitions too become the n ew mainstream.

...Bla bla bla. Guess I should stop talking, when there's noot a t hing I can do aboout it.

Cat ~~ No, that is precisely what I do NOT mean. I was referring to the *failure* of the right wing to take over the Illinois Republican party. And their subsequent decision that, if their guy couldn't win the primary, they would sit on their hands come November rather than support the "establishment" candidate. Or vote for a Green who happened to be strongly against gun control -- which is why the Greens are now an Established Party in Illinois, required to hold primaries that automatically qualify their candidate for the ballot.

The markings on the kitty on the left remind me of our Stevie, who, as of this morning is now an only cat. Cat Girl died around 6:30 this morning.

She had lost some weight, and I thought the issue was having lost a lot of teeth, making it hard to eat. I was giving her canned food, but she seemed to mostly lap up the liquid part. And our other cat, Stevie, who had been quite fit, started putting on weight. And I *did* see her both eating the kibble and drinking water. So I backed off with the extra food.

Last night when I went downstairs to give them fresh food an water, she looked alarmingly gaunt. I *know* I've seen her every day. Maybe I just hadn't seen her from that angle. I gave her some chicken broth, and she seemed to go for that, but then walked over to a cushion Demetrius put downstairs for the cats. I warmed up the broth again, and carried her to it. There was just no SUBSTANCE to her, and she seemed to be breathing heavily. She walked gingerly back to the cushion, and stayed there all night. I tried to give her some broth, but I think she was in the middle of some kind of arrest. I carried her upstairs to try to tend to her, and she fought me. Actually drew a bit of blood. She wouldn't let me hold her.

I put her in the bathtub with warmed chicken broth, but she was past being able to drink it. I felt bad about her being on the cold ceramic, so I went to get a towel to wrap her in. She fought me again. I woke up Demetrius to tell him what was happening, and by the time he got to the room, she had just a couple gasps left in her and then she was gone.

Oh, I'm so sad for you, Renee. It's hard enough when they die peacefully, but just so darn heart-wrenching when there's real struggle in it. By the panting, it sounds like Cat Girl was in pain. Our "OJ" kitty had a painful stroke the night before he died and he panted most of the night, with me sitting up with him. :-(

Emma had an episode in the middle of the night before the day she died, when she was shrieking and freaking out, and when we went to her aid she hissed at us and wouldn't let us near her. It really unsettled us badly. We made the decision to have the vet come and help her die with dignity the next day, before she could have another episode which either signified pain or that something was interfering with her brain. Possibly both.

11-ish. We got her from a rescue when she was allegedly a year old. I need to get to bed, but am really sore right now...

I still have to take Perkins out on leash because Perkins has figured out that he can jump the fence on the west side. When there were still leaves on the bushes, that was kind of a "visual barrier". He can sail right over that fence with ease, and does not even need a running start.

I try to get him to go in the yard if possible, and let Winnie out at the same time. This afternoon I couldn't get him to pee in the yard, and wanted the reassurance of knowing he'd done his business recently, so I took him through the gate and to the sidewalk...

...where I managed to trip on, well, just the sidewalk, really, and fell on my face. Fortunately two hands and a knee hit the concrete before my face did, so the injury to my face did not break the skin.Just kind of bruised it. And Perkins broke loose when I fell. I am *incredibly* grateful to my husband for writing our home phone number on both dogs' collars using fabric paint. While Demetrius was out inthe car looking for Perkins, the phone rang, and the people who found Perkins told me their address, which I passed along to Demetrius. So the good news is that Perkins is home safe again.

Sorry, Renee. Cats are normally so quite and have sleeping patterns so different from humans that by the time we notice something is wrong, it is often very near the end. That doesn't make it any the less painful; we and our pets, just as much as our human companions, share parts of one another, indeed ARE parts of one another.

Maybe the national GOP is following the lead of California, which is reputed to often set trends for the nation. Registered Republicans are around 30% of the voters in California and decreasing. The GOP hasn't been able to nominate a winning gubernatorial candidate since Pete Wilson back in the early 1990's. (Schwartzenegger doesn't count because he didn't compete in a GOP primary--which he couldn't have won because he was not RW crazy enough. Color him a functional independent.) There hasn't been a single GOP statewide office holder for some years now. In the current election the Dems gained two thirds of the state senate, and seem on track to do the same in the lower house; total control of both houses by one party hasn't happened since 1933. The new "top two" primary system combined with the new redistricting system [Thanks, Arnold] has resulted in an increase of six Dem US Representatives this time; in the previous 265 House elections over the past ten years, only ONE seat had changed parties. The California GOP has proven unable to reform itself, and the national GOP may well be in the same pickle; they appear incapable of producing Presidential timber, now or for a long time. Maybe they are heading for irrelevance followed by extinction. What then? That's where my crystal ball becomes cloudy. Certainly it isn't healthy to have one party with overwhelming power for an extended period of time.